Giving Cupcakes a Bad Name
by 711LuvsRanger
Summary: One shot. An unexpected lunch date with an unusual friend causes Steph to ponder the history of being a 'cupcake'. A little bit unfriendly to Morelli, but not too much. A faint hint of Babe in the far distance... :)


_AN: This one occurred to me in the shower this morning (where I get most of my good ideas) :-) Just a short one-shot. Spoilers for Fearless Fourteen - in fact if you haven't read it, this may not make much sense._

* * *

I was standing in line at McDonalds, thinking lunch. I had been standing there for a couple of minutes when I realised that I recognised the person standing in front of me. "Hi Zook," I said to catch his attention.

He turned in surprise, "Oh, hi Steph . Haven't seen you in ages."

I smiled, "Guess not. How have you been? How's your mom?"

He returned my smile with his own shy smile, "I'm pretty good. Mom's good too. She's got a new job, waitressing at a nice restaurant. She works lunch shifts during the week, and Friday and Saturday nights, so we get to spend most evenings together. She's doing better, you know."

"I'm really glad. How's school? You still doing OK?"

"Yeah, not bad. I love computing classes best of course."

I grinned at him, "I'm sure. Still playing Minionfire?"

He smiled wryly, "Not so much. Coupla other games more these days."

By this time he had reached the counter. He gave his order and waited. I asked impulsively, "Hey Zook, you wanna eat lunch together?"

He looked back at me, a little uncertain, "Yeah, I guess." His food was served and he took his tray, "I'll find us a table," he said. I nodded and stepped up to order my food. Once I had been served my order, I looked around for Zook, finding him quickly and joining him at the small table.

We started to eat our lunch and I cast around for another topic to chat. While I was racking my brains, he surprised me by speaking first. "I don't really go by Zook anymore," he mumbled. "You can call me Mario."

I was surprised, he had seemed really adamant about his nickname last time we spent time together. "Ok, Mario. Was Zook just a Minionfire thing?"

"Nah, it's just… I used to hate my name, and Zook was my name on the game, so I used to get everyone to call me that all the time. Some of my friends still call me Zook most of the time, but I sorta think Mario's not so bad anymore. After all, Super Mario games are pretty righteous, and I wanna work in computers someday, so I figure those people will think it's cool."

"It is cool. Still I can understand you wanting to pick your own nickname before. I know a lot of guys with nicknames, and sometimes they can be pretty embarrassing to explain," I reassured him.

He looked at me curiously, "Do you have a nickname?"

I grimaced, "I have a few actually. You know Joe calls me cupcake, which I'm not really that fond of, but he likes it. A friend of mine calls me Babe, and I kinda like that one. Some other friends tend to call me Bombshell or Bomber, because the papers call me the Bombshell Bounty Hunter."

He nodded, "Yeah, I can see why you think Babe is the best of those, I'd agree." He hesitated a bit, "so why don't you like Cupcake as a nickname?"

"Well it's kind of a long story. I don't really mind it that much, and I know Joe means it with love, it's just… well, it kinda reminds me of a bad time in my life a little."

"Why, what happened?"

I sighed, he wasn't going to let this go. "Well, back in high school, Joe was a couple of years ahead of me. He was kind of the bad boy at school that every girl secretly wanted, when their moms told them he was bad news. Kind of the dark rebel, you know? And I was pretty rebellious too, I never really fit in with my mom's expectations for me. So anyway, when I was sixteen, I was working at the Tasty Pasty bakery in the summer. Joe had just finished high school and signed up to join the Navy. He came into the bakery one evening as I was closing up and…"

Now it was my turn to hesitate, "You know this is a bit personal, and I'm not sure I should be telling you about it."

He looked at me. "Uncle Dom was pretty open about Morelli's reputation all along, you know. And there was that whole thing where he thought Joe was my father. It's not that hard to guess what happened."

I blushed, "Yeah, well anyway, long story short he talked me out of my panties in the bakery."

"In the bakery? Really? Was there like a back office with a chair or something?"

I blushed even harder, "No, it was kinda on the floor, behind the éclair case."

Mario looked horrified, "Wow, that's really nasty. Like really nasty. He coulda at least taken you out to his car or something. So were you guys, like dating?"

"No, I barely knew him, except for round the neighborhood. I mean there was the thing when I was six, but…" I blushed again when I realised my slip-up. I hastened to add, "He had been dating another girl in his year at school, Terri Grizolli."

"Wow," he repeated, "He musta really been a smooth talker then or something. So did you like have a boyfriend? He woulda been pissed."

"No, I hadn't really dated anyone. My mom was really strict, especially after…"

"You hadn't dated? So you were like… _a virgin_?" Mario blushed this time. I nodded, unwilling to say anything else. He looked even more horrified at this, " _Man_ that's nasty. That's just not nice!" he exclaimed.

I fiddled with my coke straw, feeling like this conversation had somehow gotten away from me. I was sitting here, talking to a sixteen year old boy I hardly knew, for goodness sake! I hoped he hadn't noticed my slip-up, but I looked up to see him looking at me shrewdly.

"So what happened when you were six that made your mom so strict?" he asked.

I wanted to ignore the question, but talking to Mario was somehow cathartic, and I didn't want to lie to him. Finally I sighed, "It wasn't really that big a deal. Joe was just being a curious little kid, he was only eight himself. He told me he wanted to play a new game called choo-choo. Just a couple of weeks before, my mom had told me to stay away from the Morelli boys, but like I told you, I was always rebellious. So I went with him to play the game in his dad's garage. And, well… he was the train and I was the tunnel…" I saw the realisation and understanding dawn in is horrified gaze. "Mario, we were kids! It wasn't a huge thing. But when I got home, my mom saw my dress was dirty and my panties were on backwards, and she made me tell her what happened. She was really angry with me, and punished me."

"She punished _you_? What about _him_?" he gasped.

"No, I think my mom just saw it as my fault, because she had warned me about the Morelli boys." Mario looked mutinous at that, but said nothing.

After a few minutes he asked more quietly, "So what does that have to do with him calling you cupcake? Shouldn't he call you éclair or something?"

I sighed again, "No, well… the next day, he kinda went around town and wrote poems on a couple of bathroom walls. He said I was a cupcake because I was 'soft and sweet and good to eat'," I whispered.

Mario looked totally appalled at that, "Man that is _soooo_ nasty. I can't believe that. I mean, guys at school they talk big and say some pretty rough things about the girls they like, but I can't imagine any of us doing something like that. That's just really gross."

I couldn't think of anything to say. At the time, I had been so hurt and appalled myself, first for letting it happen, and second for the fallout he caused me with his thoughtless bragging. The anger and hurt had colored the remainder of my school years. I hadn't dated anyone again until college, since I was too scared the guys at school were going to assume I was easy. Some of them had anyway.

Finally I said, "Hey don't worry. It was all a really long time ago. Water under the bridge, you know?"

He nodded reluctantly. He asked, "So how did you get back together with him after all that?"

I briefly explained the whole incident with Joe going FTA and me bringing him in. "After that, we started to work together a bit, and I could see he had really changed, become a different man. And gradually I guess, I grew to love him. He's not the same guy he was at 18, Mario. Even then, he was just a young, cocky, stupid guy."

Mario looked blank at that, "If you say so," he murmured.

"Why? What do you mean?"

Mario looked uncomfortable. "Well, I'm just saying… I overheard a few conversations while I was staying with you guys… I know I shouldn'ta been listening, but I was really worried about my mom, and I thought maybe you weren't telling me everything. I heard you talking about me, and I mean he couldn't tell you for certain that I _wasn't_ his biological child. _I_ knew I wasn't, my mom had always been open with me about it, but I couldn't tell you without admitting I'd been eavesdropping. Maybe I can understand hooking up with a stranger and not remembering, but seriously, who can't remember for sure if they had sex with their _cousin_? I guess you can believe whatever you want, but that's just a bit more than your average, stupid guy to me.

And as for how he is _now_ , I mean, he wasn't even that worried about it. When mom told him he wasn't my father, he just looked a bit relieved. He didn't seem much horrified that he could have made that mistake; that it _could have happened_. Makes me wonder if it _had_ been true, would he have even cared that much? And all he said to you was 'he was a cupcake guy now'. Like that made everything ok. I'm sorry Steph, I know it's none of my business, but I just dunno if he has changed as much as you think he has."

A couple of minutes went by in silence, before Mario stood up. "I'm sorry Steph. I shouldn't have brought all this up and made you tell me your personal stuff. You were always really nice to me through that whole shitty time with my mom, and I really like you. I shoulda minded my own business, ya know?"

I shocked both of us as I stood up and moved over to give him a hug. He hesitated a couple of seconds, before gently hugging me back.

"It's really ok, Mario," I told him, "I'm not offended. And talking to you has been really interesting. You've helped me to see my whole history from a new angle." I smiled a bit wryly, "And at least I know I'm not the only one who doesn't really like cupcake all that much!"

He grinned back at me, "I'll never be able to look at a cupcake the same way again," he teased.

I smacked his arm lightly. "Take care Mario. And keep up with good computer work."

"Bye Steph. Oh and Steph?" I looked at him again, "Maybe you should consider ditching the Cupcake and being a Babe fulltime?!" He ran out the door, leaving me gaping, open-mouthed.

 _Hmmm… maybe I should?_


End file.
